Science Fair Awards

Justin and 3 other 4th graders voluntarily entered the science fair that was for the 5th and 6th graders. They were teamed up in pairs: Justin and Joseph and Summer and Madison. Even though they were not eligible to go to District because of their age, the Judges still looked at their projects and asked them questions about them. They were then honored today at the Awards Ceremony for participating , the only 4th graders in the whole district (thanks Mr. Helton).

Here are Justin and Joseph next to their project before the ceremony:

Here is a pic of the participants. Summer is hiding her head of course Nathan is sitting with them. I couldn't take any pics of them while they were onstage because the lighting was terrible but they were all so very proud! I'm just throwing in a cute pic of Owen before the ceremony:

Math Night + Tornado = Fun

Every year the school has a "Math Night". This is when the parents and students are invited to the school to have dinner and go to different math stations to see what their kids are learning in the area of math. They also show us what they are learning at a computer lab.

Here is Nathan at his station:

Here is Justin at his:

Then, in the middle of it all, it started to storm! All of a sudden, an announcement came on stating to get to the hallways immediatly because the tornado sirens were going off and one tornado touched down 2 miles from our location and to get on the floor!!! There were over a 100 parents, teachers and kids at the school. Here we were at the beginning of it (me trying not to act too worried):

We all stayed down on the floor for about 30 minutes! After about 20, we felt safer and I got the boys to joke around and smile. In the end, it never got to our school. We just had a ton of rain, lots of hail, and a good amount of wind.

Happy Easter!

I'm Published!

I found this awesome website: www.blurb.com. You can publish your own books there! It can be anything~~cookbooks, travel books or....A BLOG! I am going to publish my blog once a year. The reason for it is because I am always worried that, if I keep this blog up for years, what happens if blogger decides to shut down?? What happens to all my blogs and pictures? This way, I know they are safe. It is a great memory book for the kids when they are grown and can look back on all of it. It is pretty cheap too and you can chose from hardcover or soft! I just created it and downloaded it! I will let you know what I think after I get it!

Van Fun

If I ever run out of ideas on what to do with Owen, all I have to do is let him play in the van. He can play in there for an hour if I let him. I even wash the outside while he is in there. He just plays with the knobs and lights and walks from the front to the back. Now I know it will end once summer gets here and it will be too hot....but just look at the joy on his face every time I put him in here!

Revenge is Fun

Mr. Helton is a 2nd grade teacher at Wood Elementary. I have known him since Justin was in 2nd grade. He used to go into Mr. Helton's class to learn science. Mr. Helton helped Justin with his science project when he was in 2nd grade (he won first place in the physical science category that year and went to the district science fair) and he helped Justin out this year with his science project. Now that Nathan is in 2nd grade, he now sees Mr. Helton for science. I also help him tutor 4th graders in math after school every Thursday. It was one of those Thursdays that he happened to mention that people over 35 are "over the hill". Well, today was his birthday and me and some other "Golden Girls" decided to get him back:

We made 3 of these (that is a Dr. Pepper in his hand and not a "beer" like Jon thought).

We made him a basket with Dr. Pepper and other goodies and he was forced to wear a "birthday boy" pin and beads with a ribbon stating "older than dirt" He had trouble blowing out his candles (trick candles) and it started to get smokey and the kids were screaming so he had to douse them with water.


Revenge is sweet (as Nathan can attest to with a cupcake).

Goodbye, Dear Friend

Last week, we said goodbye to our Saturn. It was a long time coming. Jon bought the car 3 months before we got married so it is 15 years old! Here are some parting pictures:


Those little dents in the back bumper happened in 1994 when Jon was in Korea and I was living with my parents. One of my family members hit the car but no one would own up to it (you can tell me now...it is safe!)Those scratches happened around 1997. We were living in Germany and were having our car repaired for something. An AAFES truck backed into a car (according to a witness) but we never were compensated. Something about lack of proof....

The roof lining eventually fell down so Jon had to staple it to stay up. You can still see it hanging down a little.

Here we are saying goodbye at a car dealership. We got $400.00 for it!

Here are some other things I remember about our Saturn:

• I used to wash it once a week when Jon was in Korea.

• We had it in Germany for 7 years. It survived the autobahn and when we drove around the once named East Germany, people would actually get up close and stare at it!
• It has been to Missouri, Florida, Tennesee (honeymoon), Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Texas and back to Missouri (it's final resting place).
  
• We brought home Justin in it as a newborn from the hospital.
• We brought home Nathan in it as a newborn from the hospital.
• It was the only car we owned for 9 years (we bought the minivan in 2002).

I finally was able to talk Jon into getting rid of it last week! Since he picked out our first 2 cars...it was my turn...we got a 2004 Volkswagon Jetta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE IT!! It has leather interior and heaters in the seats! Ofcourse I wash it once a week and it needs to last to the age of 15 also!!

The Homework Blues

Justin and his 4th grade class had their music performance yesterday. I taped a little of it with my camera. My favorite part is the "shoulder action"....you'll see what I mean: (push the pause button (ll) on my Playlist (far right) to hear the video)